


Motion Sick

by delighted



Category: Hawaii Five-0 (2010)
Genre: M/M, Missing Scene, S6E12, still dealing with post-episode 11 issues
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-01-22
Updated: 2016-01-22
Packaged: 2018-05-15 12:44:17
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,546
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5785771
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/delighted/pseuds/delighted
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Missing scene from Episode 12. Danny comes over to Steve’s with beers. Clearly, they’ve a few things to talk about, not the least of which is that Steve actually does get car sick.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Motion Sick

**Author's Note:**

> This started off as a quick little story about Danny finding out that Steve really DOES get car sick if he doesn’t drive. Because *that* little tidbit simply had to be dealt with. And it turned into essentially another take on dealing with episode 11, and just the bigger theme of their “issues” and arguing, which, fortunately for those of us who like to write about that, is essentially an endless sea of possibilities. So, here’s yet one more take on it, not in the same timeline as my post-episode-11 stories.

“Hey, babe.”

Steve turned to face him, with a sad smile on his face. “Danno, hi,” he sighed, and stood up to return the hug Danny was clearly offering.

“I’m so sorry, babe. So sorry,” Danny whispered in his ear.

“Thanks,” Steve whispered back. He was so relieved that Danny was here. He’d needed this. Mary was broken by Deb’s death, of course she was, and Joanie was confused but upset, and that was more than enough for Mary to deal with without having to mother Steve’s own broken heart on top of it. Danny was the perfect balm to soothe him.

So, they held the hug for maybe an uncomfortably long time, and yet it wasn’t. 

Danny’d brought Longboards, and Steve smiled. They sat down, opened their beers, and looked out to sea.

“So, you’re going to take her for a hike?” Danny asked, and his tone was light, but sweet, and not at all sarcastic.

“Yeah,” Steve huffed out a slight laugh. “It was the only thing on her bucket list she didn’t do.”

Danny smiled. “I heard about the list,” he replied. Still softly. And Steve probably should have been more alerted by that.

“Oh, yeah?” Steve muttered absently.

“Mary brought Joanie over to play with Charlie while she took care of stuff,” Danny explained.

Steve turned to look at Danny, surprised at that. “I, uh, I didn’t know you guys did that,” he said, uncertain how it made him feel. “I could have watched Joanie,” he said, puzzled.

“I know, babe,” Danny soothed. “But we wanted to give you some time.” He smiled, and reached a hand out to rest on Steve’s arm. Steve bit his lip at the tender gesture, and looked down to hide the moisture creeping into his eyes.

“Thanks, Danno,” he whispered. “That was really sweet.”

“I know, wasn’t it? Mary and I both are very sweet when it comes to your soft heart,” he replied, playfully, but still so warmly, and Steve couldn’t help it, he laughed.

“Yeah,” he responded. “You are.” And Danny’s hand was still on his arm, and he smiled, eased back in his chair, and looked out to sea again, smiling. That, he knew, would have made Deb very pleased.

That thought, alas, made him sigh, as he remembered the conversation they’d had about Danny.

Deb had remarked on Danny’s absence to Steve after the driving incident. “Where’s your sweet golden boy?” She’d asked, deceptively playfully, poking Steve in the ribs as she did so. But he’d known she was utterly serious. Her eyes always gave that away.

Steve had blushed. “Uh, Danny hurt his ankle,” he’d replied. “I made him rest at home till it’s better.”

Deb had tilted her head at him, and simply said “Oh?”

Steve had sighed, knowing she’d force it out of him if he didn’t volunteer it, and he hadn’t been up for a fight. “I may have caused it.”

“Uh-huh,” she’d prompted.

“By being a big dumb jerk?” He’d suggested.

“Ah,” had been her only reply.

“That doesn’t surprise you?” Steve had laughed in response.

“Darling, no. It doesn’t. Not where Danny is concerned.” She’d smiled, kindly, but sadly. “You always were reluctant to admit your feelings, even as a child.”

Steve had cleared his throat, and swallowed.

Deb had just smiled and waited.

Steve had sighed again. “I took him to a resort on Maui, to try to get us to work stuff out,” he’d started. She’d smiled encouragingly as he paused, uncertain how much to reveal. “And I maybe went about it the wrong way, and Danny got hurt.” He’d slumped as he admitted that, realizing how it sounded before Deb could react.

“Ah,” she’d repeated. “Well, people do tend to get hurt when we try to smother our feelings,” she’d said, neutrally. He’d turned to look searchingly at her, and she’d just smiled softly. “Darling,” she’d sighed, putting a hand on his arm. “It’s written so clearly on your face every time you look at him, I’m amazed the whole world doesn’t know.”

Steve had bitten back a laugh. “I think they do,” he’d managed.

“But Danny doesn’t,” she’d pointed out, gently.

“No,” Steve had replied almost silently. “No, he doesn’t.”

“Mmmm,” had been her reply. And Steve had known what she was getting at. He’d looked at her, blinked once, swallowed hard, and sighed.

“I’ll tell him,” he promised. “I will.”

And she’d smiled hugely, hugged him, and whispered “I know you will, darling. I know you will.”

A single tear dripped down his face as he remembered that conversation. He’d imagined Deb would have been around to make sure that Steve kept his word. But he realized she’d known what she was doing, in essence extracting a death bed promise from him that he would, she had known, not be able to go back on. And so now he had to tell Danny. He just was completely unsure of how to do that.

Danny saw the tear fall, Steve knew, even before he spoke.

“I heard about you letting Deb drive the truck,” he said softly.

Steve laughed. “Mary tell you?”

Danny grinned. “She recorded it on her phone,” he replied, and then bit his lip as though to keep the grin from exploding.

Steve groaned and rolled his eyes.

“So, you weren’t, in fact, lying.” It was a statement, not a question—though it had a wondering tone to it—but more than that, it was an opening to the conversation they had never managed to actually have.

Steve took a deep breath. “No, Danny, I wasn’t.” He wasn’t at all sure he was ready to have _this_ conversation now, of all times, but then, he wasn’t sure he was ever going to be ready to have this particular conversation, and perhaps that had been the trouble all along. Deb was right. He never had been comfortable discussing feelings. Least of all his own.

Danny, fortunately, had less of an issue with talking. “When were you going to tell me that, huh, Steven?” And his tone was still soft, but there was a trace of that Danny-like-intensity creeping in, though clearly he was trying to restrain himself. “These are the kinds of things, as I have been telling you from Day One, babe,” and he paused, his breath having grown shaky like it did when he was talking about something that really mattered. “That _partners need to know about each other_.”

“I did tell you, Daniel.”

“No,” Danny said, and he was losing that softness, the warmth, and tension was turning his tone harder. He was holding back the gestures, but only just. “No, Steven, you did NOT tell me. _You told our therapist_.” And he sat back after that, as though to highlight it.

Steve blinked, silently, completely uncertain how to reply to that. Danny could tell.

“I don’t want other people mediating in our business,” Danny sighed. “We do fine, you notice, when we actually talk. The only time we have real problems is when we don't talk, or if we let other people interfere. But when we actually _talk_ , and yes, we bicker, and yes we argue, but it works, alright? It always works as long as we actually talk.” He paused as though waiting for Steve to say something, but gave up rather quickly. “But in order for that to work, babe,” he sighed somewhat exasperatedly, “ _we have to actually talk_.” He paused again, locking eyes with Steve, as though to emphasize his next point. “And you _cannot_ keep things from me like this. It’s the same as me needing to know when to duck. I need to know what you’re thinking, I need to know what you’re feeling, I need to know what’s going on in that big fat thick head of yours. I need to know.” He was taught with tension over what he’d been saying, but also, Steve thought, somewhat relieved to have gotten it out.

And Steve was beginning to wonder how much this was about them as partners and how much this was about them as more than that. Because he would admit he was a bit shaky on the whole partners thing, but all of what Danny had said could just as easily have been said to a _partner_.

Steve sighed. “I dunno, Danny. I don’t know why I didn’t tell you. I mean, clearly it’s embarrassing. As you so kindly pointed out, I am a Navy SEAL. How could a Navy SEAL get car sick, of all things. I jump out of planes and I’m fine, I can ride in fast boats with no problem. And, I’m ok in a car as long as it’s not a chase. But the swerving. I just.” And he felt sick again just thinking of it.

Danny sighed and deflated. “Ok, babe. I get it. But you don’t have to be all tough guy with me, you know that, right? In fact, I need you not to be. I know that five years in there are still things about being partners that are difficult for you to grasp, but some of them need to be clear to you by now, and things like this....” He sighed and left off.

“How much of this is actually about us as partners?” Steve asked.

“Pardon?” Danny replied.

“How much of this is about issues between partners, and how much of this is something else?”

Danny locked eyes with Steve, and they sat there like that for a while, things unsaid floating on the air between them. Five years of things.

“What do you mean?” Danny finally whispered.

“Well, you said it, we do ok when it’s just us. It’s when we have to explain our relationship to someone else that we have problems. So maybe that tells us what our ‘problem,’ so to speak, really is.”

“Which is what?”

“Come on, Danny. Don’t play stupid with me right now. Just us. Talking. Sharing feelings. Just like you want. So let’s really share them. And this isn’t about being partners. Because we do that just fine. Five-0 would _not_ be what it is if we didn’t. This is about _us_.”

Danny sat there with his mouth hanging open, eyes wide in shock. Eventually, he closed his mouth, cleared his throat, blinked, and looked away.

“Really, Danno?” And Steve was actually feeling a little pissed off. “You’ll complain to Loraine about me. You’ll tell our therapist you have issues with me. But. You never tell _me_.”

And that had either been the wrong choice or the right one, because suddenly Danny was off.

“Are you kidding me right now, Steven?” He actually stood up with the force of it. “I never tell you? What do you think I’m doing, when I speak?”

Steve just smiled. “Yeah, you complain about my driving, you complain I don’t wait for back up, you complain about my methods. I mean, come on, it’s expected by now, but we go on, we get it done, and we move on. That’s just how we work.” He paused, looking for the acknowledgment in Danny’s eyes, which he saw. “So, what is it you complain about? What is it that you tell them that you don’t tell me? What is the real issue here, for you, Danny?” Danny sat back down on a sigh, and shook his head. “I know it’s not about me driving your car. That’s just covering up for something else. So, what is it? Because, you know, what, Danny?” Steve looked at him, held his eyes. “I’m tired of pretending.” And he leaned forward and he kissed him.

Danny sputtered and pulled back. “What the _hell_ , Steven? Seriously. What?”

“I’m tired of this, Danny,” Steve said, surprisingly calmly. “I’m tired of pretending we have ‘issues’ in our working relationship.”

“WE DO! You... big....  _Arugh!_ ” Danny stood again and paced away from Steve, kicking the sand in frustration.

“So, what, I’m a control freak?” Steve asked, still calm. “I don’t tell you every single thought that comes into my head? Why? You know most of them just by looking at me. Frankly, we have better communication than most couples I know, Danny, and I think you know that.” Danny was staring with his mouth open again, and fortunately that was something Steve was really quite familiar with. “You complain that I don’t tell you enough, that we don’t talk enough. But we talk a lot. So, you know what? I think it’s about what we _don’t_ talk about.” He waited for Danny to turn back around at look at him. Which, Danny being Danny, he eventually did.

“And what’s that, Steven?” He asked, clearly shaken.

Steve just looked at him. And he knew Danny saw exactly what he meant because he looked quickly away.

“As for me being a control freak,” Steve began. “You always say you want everything by the book (which is not true by the way), and how is that not controlling, Danny? You demand that everyone meet your expectations, and when we don’t, you say it’s because we didn’t go by the book. Guess what, Danny, life doesn’t happen by the book. Life is crazy and defies expectation and turns faster than procedure can follow, and if you don’t run to keep up, people die.”

Danny looked at Steve on that last bit, and it was like something went off in his head. “You can’t save everyone, Steven.”

“I know, Danny. But I have to try.”

Danny sighed, and came back over and sat back down, on the edge of his chair, sitting as close to Steve as he could, looking him in the eye. “I know you do, babe. But you have to let me help. You have to let me in.”

Steve shook his head. “You _are_ in, Danny. You’re more _in_ than anyone has ever been. Why don’t you get that?” He paused for a breath, and to grab at Danny’s hand. “And why doesn’t that go both ways? How do you not see that you push back too? That you keep me out with your negativity, your anticipation that everything will fail. I can’t ever succeed, Danny, if you don’t let me try.”

“Is that what you think I do?” Danny asked, softly. “Push you away with negativity?”

“Not me, Danny, _life_.” Steve sighed. “And, yeah, me too.”

Danny’s eyes started watering, and he took a deep, if shaky, breath. He sat there for several breaths, letting the tears roll down his cheeks. Looking into Steve's eyes. Steve just waited. Eventually, Danny seemed to come to a resolution. He huffed out a breath and nodded. “Ok,” he whispered. And he leaned forward and kissed Steve, softly, slowly, and very very sweetly. When he pulled back, he wiped the tears from his eyes and smiled.

Steve was breathing heavily, and he tried to smile back. “Ok,” he said, as he huffed out a breath of relief, and leaned back in his chair, still holding Danny’s hand, tightly.

Danny moved his chair right up next to Steve's, and leaned tentatively against him. Steve wrapped an arm around Danny, pulling him close, and they sat there, watching the ocean and trying really hard not to feel motion sick. 


End file.
